Forgiveness
by Lucinda M. H. Cheshir
Summary: Aida and her friends have yet to find the Seer, but that's the least of her problems. First she must deal with a certain suicidal someone at King Landon's request... Rated M for language, and there will be more story to follow! I promise! Do please read and review, it's much appreciated! Thank you!
1. Chapter 1

_**Sooo... yeah. I just finished playing these games for what feels like the thousanth time (love them so much. Zander is such a sweetheart.) and boy, did the last one leave some questions bouncing around in my head. The very **_**least****_ of these being "Who on earth could possibly be the Seer?" Anyway, without further ado, here you have my guess as to what could happen next in Aida's adventures. Also, for the purposes of this, I have Aida paired with Zander. Just 'cause I love him so much. Though, come to think of it, Kole is also quite a dear..._**

**_~Lucy_**

1.

"Thank you, kid." Aida said as she accepted the fresh bundle of letters from the page boy. The boy beamed and bowed slightly.

"You're welcome, highness." he said, then rushed off to complete another task before Aida could protest.

"I keep telling you to just call me Aida, Joddy." She muttered to herself, closing her chamber door and sitting down on a comfortable chair in order to start reading the letters from her friends.

In particular, to read the letter from Zander.

She was halfway through when a knock sounded on the door. Aida jumped with surprise, then, feeling incredibly annoyed, she stood and answered the door.

"Oh, Uncle Landy." her annoyance melted away at the sight of her uncle in her doorway, only to be replaced by worry upon seeing the expression on his face. "What's up?"

"He's been asking for you again." King Landon said grimly. Aida frowned, but nodded understandingly.

"Okay. I'll go. Is Kyra around? He's probably going to try and kill himself again."

King Landon sighed regretfully. "I know. He blames himself for everything, doesn't he? But unfortunately, Kyra already left for Ildis. She won't be back for quite awhile. I can't send down a castle doctor, but why don't you take a first aid kit, just in case? And don't give him anything sharp. And don't let him strangle himself, either."

"Yes, Uncle Landy." Aida said, accepting the first aid kit and closing her chamber door behind her.

"And don't let him-" King Landon tried to add, but Aida cut him off with an irritated glance.

"Uncle Landon," she said, pursing her lips with annoyance, "I won't let him kill himself. I know that he needs to stay alive, as much for my sake as for his own. Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure you can prevent-"

Aida rolled her eyes in a long-suffering manner. "Uncle Landy, I've spoken to him a thousand times before. today's not going to be any different, but you can wait at the end of the hall, if you're so worried about his well-being."

"No, it's fine. You're right, my dear. I trust you. I should go back to the throne room to take care of those dull matters of state that kings must see to." King Landon sighed.

Aida grinned. "Good luck with that, Uncle Landy. See you later!"

King Landon managed a small smile before parting ways with her, heading down the opposite corridor while Aida made a beeline for the dungeons.

"Princess Aida," the guard said, rather nervously, eyeing Aida's white hair, as though reassuring himself that she was, in fact, real.

"Darin! Hey! Sorry again about that time- y'know, when I got you drunk and then knocked you out? It was nothing personal."

"Oh, that's quite all right, Princess." Darin said nervously, fiddling with the ring of keys he kept at his side. "That particular incident has only served to make me train harder, to prevent such things happening on my watch in the future."

"Well, that's good. As long as you're okay, that's fine by me. Anyway, lemme in, I have an errand to run down there. Also, please don't call me princess. Just 'Aida' is fine. You won't get in trouble, I swear."

Darin smiled nervously, then opened the heavy wooden door to allow Aida to pass into the dungeons.

She walked through the labyrinthine passageways, not pausing for a moment until she reached a grate in the floor in one of the deepest parts of the dungeons.

In this area of the dungeons, there were no windows to speak of: the only light afforded the area was the light of the torches and a lantern which Aida took off of its peg on the wall, lit very carefully, and, just as carefully, placed it on the floor at the edge of the grate. She squatted down and looked at the prisoner chained several feet below her feet.

"Hey." she said quietly.

The man looked up, meeting her green-eyed gaze with his own. "Aida." he said hoarsely, as tears budded in his eyes. "You came."

"I always do." Aida said, smiling sadly.

"Yes. Can't imagine why, though." The man hung his head, allowing his now filthy white hair to fall inelegantly over his face.

"Because you're my twin brother, Kael. And you _did_ apologize, after all. So what's up? Are you hungry? I could probably pinch a bit of food from the kitchens without anyone noticing, if you want."

"N..no. Thank you, Aida. I don't deserve your kindness."

"Well, suck it up, ex-king, 'cause you're getting it either way." Aida grinned. "I'll bring you something to eat after supper's over. But Uncle Landon said that you were asking to speak with me, so what is it?"

Kael looked back up at her, his green eyes now overflowing with unsuppressed tears. "I shouldn't be alive, Aida. Why am I alive? I'm nothing but the scum of the earth. Why am I still alive? I should be dead!"

"Whoa, whoa! Not this again! Kael, you're alive because I'm alive! I've told you that, what, a thousand times now?" Aida sighed. "We're twins. Not just twins, we're half-noble twins. When I stabbed us, only the noble part of us died. And since we're twins, our very lives are tied together more tightly than, I think, either of us would like. So when Kyra resuscitated me, only the human part of me came back, and your human part had little choice but to follow along."

"Yes, but I don't deserve it!" Kael wailed.

"Shut up. No one said that you did. You've been a real douchebag lately, but killing yourself or getting killed won't help anything. Kael, you remember Diego, right?"

"That-The Eagles leader?" Kael asked, suddenly confused. "What does he have to do with anything?"

"Shut up and listen. We hated him for awhile, mostly because he kind of killed Sky and my entire camp, back in Appletown-"

"Sky... She's the human alchemist, right? The one with the lightning glove? The one who saved your life after I almost killed you that first time?" Kael interrupted, still tearful.

"Who's telling this story, me or you?" Aida demanded. When Kael didn't reply, she sighed and continued. "Yes, that Sky. Anyway, Diego sort of kind of had them murdered, along with probably hundreds of other people, including the Knight Order, -which was the reason the Silver Order and that douche Synius were able to screw you over so royally- and so of course we swore a vendetta against Diego. Just like any reasonable human being would do, right?"

"You should swear a vendetta against me." Kael muttered. Aida ignored him.

"But eventually, we figured out that we were actually on the same side, and that all of that murdering of our camp was just a big misunderstanding, as was the disagreement he had with Zander and Tillie-"

"The Moon Elf mage and the Dwarven alchemist." Kael interrupted again. Aida shot him a sour look.

"Quit interrupting, Kael. I'm trying to explain something important to you."

"Yes, Aida. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I-" Kael choked on his words and began to bawl, rather loudly, in Aida's opinion.

"Hush up." She said briskly. "I'm not done."

Kael silenced himself, with some difficulty.

"That's better. Anyway, we didn't like it much, and we didn't trust Diego much at first, but eventually, after a couple bumps in the road- one of which being selling me out to you in order to gather intel (that douchebag)- we grew to, at least, respect each other a decent amount. And he must have REALLY worked on getting Sky to forgive him, because, well..." Aida cleared her throat, still feeling solidly in denial about Diego and Sky's relationship.

"Was there a moral in there somewhere?" Kael asked.

"Er- yeah." Aida was dragged away from her disapproving thoughts of what Sky could be up to at that very moment, "You're quite a lot like Diego, Kael. I mean, just think: douche-y habits, blaming me for your troubles, having a tendency to murder innocent people for no reason at all, and, most importantly, you were being _controlled._ So that's why I don't blame you for what you've done. Synius killed your mother for the sole purpose of controlling your actions. Everything's his fault, not so much yours. He played on your fears, controlled you by controlling Queen Kathleen, hell, that douchebag even killed your father!"

"They were your parents, too, Aida." Kael said quietly. Aida was silent for a moment.

"Maybe biologically, but I never knew them. Not at all. I only met the Queen once, and I never got to meet King Adrian."

"It wasn't your fault, Aida. You were just a child." Kael told her.

"Who's consoling who around here?" Aida sniffed, wiping the tears from her eyes. Then she laughed, remembering something.

"What is it?" Kael asked.

"Nothing. It's just that, well, not so long ago, you were telling me that it _was _my fault that I was sent away. Geez, you were crazy." Aida laughed.

Kael smiled regretfully. "I'm sorry. Our situations do seem to have reversed themselves, don't they? Now you're royalty and I'm just your twin, locked away in the dungeons..."

"Kael, shut up. I have absolutely no intention of acting like any sort of royalty, much less act like you did."

"But why? I didn't have to torture you so much, you know. I was a complete and utter tyrant, not to mention a spoiled brat, so why...?"

Aida smiled sadly. "Kael, you want to know why I haven't even so much as punched you?"

"It might clear up some of my confusion, yes." Kael admitted. Aida smiled even more at the humour.

"It's because first off, you're doing an awfully good job of that on your own. You don't need me to add anything to your pain. And second... never mind, it'll sound stupid."

She stood up straight, stretching out her legs which were now sore.

"I won't judge you. I'm in no position to, after all, Aida. Just tell me." Kael called desperately from his pit.

"Heh. I suppose you're right." Aida laughed mirthlessly. "Fine then. It's because of your eyes."

"What about them?"

"They're both green now."


	2. Chapter 2

2.

"Thanks, Darin. See ya later." Aida nodded at the guard as she exited the dungeons, relishing the feeling of exiting the dungeons without being chased by murderous nobles.

For lack of anything better to do, Aida started heading back to her chambers, only to be intercepted by a very distraught Rose Irving.

"Oh my goodness, Princess! Please, could you _please_ help me? They're arguing about me again!"

Aida rolled her eyes. She'd had about enough of her cousins' bickering, and with poor Rose caught in the middle of it, Aida found it very hard to take any sides except Rose's.

"PHILIP, YOU'RE TOO YOUNG! SHE'D NEVER-" Arthur Fairbairn thundered at his younger, fairer brother.

"I'M ONLY A YEAR YOUNGER THAN YOU, ARTHUR!" Philip Fairbairn thundered right back. "Anyway, she clearly loves me more!"

"Geez, and here I thought that you two were supposed to be the crown princes of this place. Looks to me like you're nothing but love-stricken page boys." Aida announced her presence with a witty line and an eye roll.

Both of her cousins instantly shut up and turned to look at her.

"Oh, Princess Aida. It's only you." Arthur said, seeming to become instantly civil at the sight of her. His eyes, like Darin's had, edged nervously around her white hair, the last vestige of her heritage as a noble. Aida smirked.

"Yes. It's me. And are you two done bickering like a married couple? Geez, it's like you've completely forgotten about Rose here."

"Oh, Rose, I'm so sorry!" Philip exclaimed immediately, rushing to Rose's side and taking her hand in both of his. "My cousin is right, I've been so silly to forget completely about your feelings!"

Rose shot a reproachful look at Aida, who beamed innocently.

"What's the big idea?" Arthur asked suspiciously, from right behind Aida.

"Big idea?" Aida asked innocently, trying not to show how much his sudden voice had surprised her. "Oh, nothing really. Just _reminding_ you that _Rose_ is the one you should be talking to. Also, you should work on your spelling some more: Rose was just telling me it hasn't improved at all since the last time you sent her a letter."

To Aida's distinct satisfaction, Arthur's face turned a pleasing shade of red: a mixture of fury and embarrassment.

"Stop meddling. At this rate, dear Rose will never choose between us brothers." was all Arthur said as he sulked away, taking Rose's other hand in his, while trying to elbow Philip out of his way.

Aida smirked at her cousins' behaviour, waved goodbye at Rose, and went along, humming happily to herself, completely ignoring the imploring look Rose sent her way.

"Ah, Miss Aida! There you are!" Called a maid, waving Aida down as if she was a cab.

Aida sighed. "Pamela, I told you before, didn't I? I don't like titles. So none of this 'Miss Aida' or 'your highness' or 'Princess Aida' stuff, okay? Now, what is it? I seem to be quite popular today."

Pamela giggled, quite obnoxiously. "You've got a visitor m- I mean, Aida. Said he accompanied you on your adventures. He's got all of the girls in such a tizzy!" she giggled again, and Aida rolled her eyes. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Who is it?" Aida asked, privately suspecting that it was Jace. If anyone could get a horde of castle chambermaids in such a tizzy, it _would _be him.

"I don't remember his name, but now that I'm trying to remember, I think he said something along the lines of 'just tell her to come, she'll be so surprised!' But oooh, he's so _handsome,_ miss- I mean, Aida. You'd best get there quick-like, else I've no idea what the other maids might do!"

Rolling her eyes yet again, Aida nodded and followed Pamela down the corridors, farther and farther away from the unread letters in Aida's room.

"Here we are, Aida." Pamela smiled, opening the door to a modestly sized sitting room that Aida thought used to belong to Queen Kathleen.

"Thanks, Pamela. See you later." Aida nodded the maid away, then froze at the sight of the man sitting uncomfortably in a chair across the room.

Then, with a delighted shriek, Aida ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

"Aida!" Zander laughed, returning the embrace, surprised but delighted. "How have you been? I've missed you so much!"

Aida grinned. "You've missed me? I've missed you at least twice as much!"

Zander smirked. "No, I think I missed you about ten times more. I _am_ a mage, after all."

Aida gave him a half-hearted shove, then kissed him. He returned the kiss, gently pulling Aida onto his lap, seeming not to hear the muted giggles of chambermaids spying on them.

"Mm." she smiled dreamily after he drew away. After a brief moment, she came to her senses. "Oh, yeah. Why are you here, Zander? Not that I'm complaining, but your letters made it sound like you were really busy with stuff back in Ildis."

"I was, but I had to come and see you. It was getting unhealthy: I kept accidentally burning things. I almost accidentally burned the library down more than once. Airdan got really mad at me, and Tilly just ordered me to come here already, since I obviously couldn't think of anything else."

"I'm so honoured to be monopolizing your thoughts, Zander." Aida grinned, drawing in for another kiss.

"Ooh, hang on. Not that I don't want another kiss from your lovely self, but Kyra asked me to give this to you. Said something about it being important." He held up an unmarked envelope, which Aida took and tore open rather hastily.

_Aida,_ Kyra's note said, _I hate to be sending you another letter so soon, but time is of the essence. I need you to come to Ildis immediately and to bring the one in the dungeons. If at all possible, do not reveal his identity to anyone superfluous: this includes your mage._ Aida's eyes went wide at that. _This is a necessary safety precaution, so if you know what is safe for you, Zander, and our friend in the dungeons, you will not breathe a word, at least until you are safely in Ildis and your mage has fewer things to burn in the immediate area. I have made arrangements with Captain Nina for you and Zander, who I expect will be the bearer of this note, for you, Zander, and our friend in the dungeons to board __**The Savage Princess **__tomorrow evening. And please, Aida, exercise caution._

_~Kyra_

"Is it good news or bad news?" Zander asked, sometime after Aida finished reading Kyra's letter.

"Well, it looks like we get to go back to Ildis," Aida said, unsure of how much she ought to tell him, or whether to ignore Kyra's instructions completely and tell him about Kael.

"Oh, that's great! You can see Til again: she's really missed you." Zander grinned, apparently oblivious to the indecision that was boiling within Aida's mind at that moment.

"Yeah," she said distractedly. "I... well, I have to... I gotta go talk to Uncle Landy. According to Kyra, we're supposed to be bringing one of the prisoners in the dungeons to Ildis with us."

"Oh." Zander said, looking sad as Aida disentangled herself from him and stood.

"Don't look at me like that! Kyra said it was important!" Aida brandished the letter at Zander, who gave an exaggerated sigh.

"But you're _leaving_ me again." He said melodramatically.

"Oh hush. I'll be right back. And _maybe_, just maybe, if you play your cards right then, mage, you and I can have a sleepover." Aida teased, and Zander caught her hands in his.

"I think I'd like that." he smiled. Aida smiled back, most flirtatiously.

"I know." she said.


	3. Chapter 3

3.

Aida hurried down the corridors of the castle towards the throne room, hoping that she wouldn't manage to get herself lost on the way, as had happened on numerous other occasions in the past couple months, before she had become better acquainted with the layout of what Aida supposed was technically her new home.

A cheerful woof came from down the hall, and Aida smiled at her shaggy sheepdog puppy. "Hey there, Kael." She knelt down and scooped up the small, rather hyperactive dog and held him in her arms. "You and your namesake have very different personalities, you know."

The puppy woofed again, and licked Aida's face, his fluffy tail waving manically. Aida smiled and scratched his ears before setting Kael the sheepdog puppy back down on the stone floor of the corridor, where he skidded excitedly and quite nearly fell flat on his face more than once.

"I'm going to talk to the king," Aida told him as she continued down the hallway, "it's about an adventure that I'm going to go on. Haven't been on one of those in a while, now. Maybe you'll come along, though you'll have to promise not to chase Yueyue around. Or bark at Seena at all. Assuming that they've all made it back to Ildis and aren't still in Odarga or somewhere like that."

Kael the puppy panted as his oversized paws scrabbled on the stone floor, following Aida as quickly as he could.

Aida smiled again: if talking to the human (more or less) Kael always depressed her (since all those pep talks were taking a toll on her own psyche,) then seeing the extremely fluffy puppy version of Kael always cheered her up.

Finally, after taking about three wrong turns and running into two dead ends, Aida found her way to the throne room, where King Landon was currently listening to formal complaints from the people of Valond who were brave enough to seek an audience with the new king.

Of course, since everyone already knew of Landon's kindness, that ended up being a lot of people. Aida had to elbow her way past the crowd, puppy Kael sticking to her like a shadow, in order to get even remotely close to where her Uncle Landon sat, looking rather tired out and weighted down by the crown that rested on his head.

The last few people, noticing the colour of her hair, had sense enough to scatter, and Aida held up Kyra's letter purposefully and waved it around.

This movement did not go unnoticed by King Landon, and he beckoned Aida forward, motioning for the farmer who was in the midst of listing his many grievances with his neighbour to stop talking for a moment.

"What is it, Aida?" he asked, correctly assuming that it was a matter of great importance.

"Letter from Kyra." Aida explained, handing it over. Landon unfolded the paper and read it quickly.

"I see. I think that can be arranged. Tell the guards that you're taking him, and they'll make the necessary preparations." Landon said sagely, giving the letter back to Aida.

"Fantastic." Aida grinned, and practically skipped out of the throne room and headed in the direction of the dungeons for the second time that day.

This, however, did little to dampen her spirit: not only had Zander made an unexpected visit, but Aida was going to go and see her friends for the first time in months. Even if it was for some mysterious reason that involved Kael (the human, not the puppy (the puppy was still following close at her heels),) Aida felt euphoric. Even though the castle was nice and all, Aida had missed Ildis and its crystal snow dearly. Well, she hadn't so much missed all of the grumpy Moon Elves, but she had missed her friends.

"Hey again, Darin!" Aida said cheerfully to the guard outside the dungeon entrance. "I need to go talk to your captain, can you tell me where he is?"

"Oh, prin- erm, Aida. Captain Retter is in the guardroom right past this door." Darin told her.

"Thank you!" Aida practically sang, and Darin gave her a strange, slightly scared look as he allowed her to pass by him and into the guard room.

"Yo, Captain Retter!" Aida hailed the captain of the guard informally.

Captain Retter, an aging man who had been the captain of the guard since King Adrian's time, looked around from his desk, looking vaguely shocked and slightly scandalized by Aida's familiar greeting.

"Ah, Princess Aida." He said, and stood respectfully, bowing to her. "What may I do for your highness?"

Aida rolled her eyes: she'd given up on getting Captain Retter to drop the whole royal title thing long ago: the man was so set in his ways, he wouldn't listen at all. "I need to borrow my brother for awhile, starting tomorrow evening. Also, apparently no one is allowed to know who he really is, so if you could figure something out to cover his hair and stuff... that'd be nice."

Captain Retter bowed again. "It is done, your highness."

Aida grinned. "Awesome, thanks a bunch!"

Captain Retter coughed awkwardly and bowed yet again. "You are welcome, Princess."

"Great, bye!" Aida waved cheerily and practically bounced out of the guard room, with Kael the sheepdog puppy yapping happily at her heels.

She looked down at him and grinned. "Kael, I tell you, this is going to be awesome. I'm gonna get to see all my favourite people again!"

Kael wagged his tail so enthusiastically that he nearly fell over again on the slippery stone floor. Aida laughed, patted his head, and began to head back to the place she'd left Zander.


End file.
